Notification device for a graphical user environment

Abstract

A system and method that provides a graphical user interface environment with a notification device. In a computer system having a graphical user environment, it is desired to have a mechanism for an application to notify a user that a process requires attention. This may be, for example, that an operation has finished, that a scheduled event has occurred, or that an application requires user intervention. In one embodiment of the invention, this notification mechanism is in the form of a notification window on the graphical environment desktop. The notification window may take the form of a ticker tape that is associated with a series of notify icons. A notify icon is an object in the graphical user desktop that is associated with an application.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A system for use with a computerized graphical user interface environment, for graphically notifying a user of an actionable event by displaying a notification on the user's display, comprising: 
 a computer system having a graphical user interface;    a server process in communication with said computer system, said server process at startup containing a set of dispatch functions, each dispatch function represents a message or notification which the server may potentially send to the user via the user interface or desktop; and,    a display agent, which identifies actionable events and uses said dispatch function to display a notification of said actionable events in the graphical user interface.    
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said dispatch function has a set of associated parameters which are defined at Runtime.  
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2  wherein said notification is a ticker tape and said associated parameter is a ticker tape begin message.  
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , including a client process developed so as to define an action for every event it may be concerned wit, wherein said events are then broadcast to the display agent using a notification feature, such as a pop-up or a ticker tape.  
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the system assigns unique handles to each notification.  
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1  further comprising: 
 a server process running on the users computer system;  
 a client process running on the users computer system and in communication with the server process; and,  
 a messaging agent, which translates communications from the server process to the client process and relays them to the display agent.  
 
     
     
         7 . A method of notifying a user within a graphical computer environment on a computer system of an actionable event, comprising 
 providing a graphical user interface;    providing a client process running on the computer system and in communication with the Server process;    providing a server process in communication with said computer system, said server process at startup containing a set of dispatch functions, each dispatch function represents a message or notification which the server may potentially send to the user via the user interface or desktop;    intercepting those communications from the server process to the client process which require user notification and relaying them to a display agent; and,    displaying notification of such events on the graphical user interface.    
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7  wherein said displaying is via a display agent, which identifies actionable events and uses said dispatch function to display a notification of said actionable events in the graphical user interface.  
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8  wherein said dispatch function has a set of associated parameters which are defined at Runtime.  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9  wherein said notification is a ticker tape and said associated parameter is a ticker tape begin message.  
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the client process is developed so as to define an action for every event it may be concerned wit, wherein said events are then broadcast to the display agent using a notification feature, such as a pop-up or a ticker tape.  
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 8  wherein the system assigns unique handles to each notification.